


When the Dust Settles

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers as a team, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Post-Infinity War, Projections, everyone lives!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 12:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13927179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: In the aftermath of Thanos, Peter just wants to rest. He isn't allowed to - the next battle is already challenging the Avengers.When the Winter Soldier takes a hit meant for Peter, Peter realizes he still has a lot to learn about forgiveness - and that Tony Stark is going to be the one to teach him.





	When the Dust Settles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nix3994](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nix3994/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Nix!! This is late and still incomplete(!), but it shall get there eventually. It just turned into a whole thing and so... it continues on :) there's a happy ending somewhere!
> 
> This fic is set after Infinity War, but with zero spoilers because I don't know anything. The 'Scavengers' aren't meant to be a reference to anything. If there's something in the comics with the name, than oops and there's no connection!
> 
> Many thanks to Chiizu & Skye for the beta help!

It’s not Thanos. Thanos is done, defeated, gone. The battle had required blood (so much blood), sweat, and tears, but they had  _ won _ .

Peter had crawled back home and reassured himself that Aunt May was still alive, reassured Aunt May that  _ he  _ was still alive, ate his weight in protein, and then promptly passed out on his bed for sixteen hours.

Then the Scavengers come.

The Scavengers are nothing compared to Thanos. The Scavengers aren’t strong or powerful - they’re opportunistic. They creep into the only just disappearing shadow of Thanos and attempt to take over a weakened Earth before her defenders have a chance to heal. 

They look like giant cockroaches, if cockroaches walked upright on four legs, with another four that function as ‘arms.’ 

“This is your deal, right? You eat these things for breakfast,” Hawkeye teases the Black Widow. Most of their aircraft is down, still dysfunctional after the battle with Thanos, and so the Avengers (with Peter!) are clustered together in the back of a transport truck as they get carted deeper into what remains of downtown NYC. 

Behind his mask, Peter makes a face. He’s Spider-Man but he’s not a  _ spider _ . Black Widow simply glares Hawkeye into submission, and Peter is relieved when no one turns to him next with a ‘spiders eat cockroaches’ joke. 

Captain America refocuses them by outlining the strategy for containment and putting everyone in position, while Mr. Stark coordinates with King T’challa about any international movements needed. Peter listens for his name, for his position.

It doesn’t come from Captain America. It comes from Mr. Stark.

“Stay back,” Mr. Stark orders Peter. Or maybe Peter should call him Iron Man right now? Mr. Stark is already wearing an armor, an older but intact version.

Peter remembers the battered remains of the armor Mr. Stark had used to fight Thanos. Peter remembers Mr. Stark as a crumpled heap on the ground. He’s not sure he’ll ever forget the image or the fear that he had in seeing it. For now the faceplate remains closed, hiding the injuries Peter knows still have to be there. His own body, with accelerated healing, protests with his every movement. 

“I can help!” Peter argues, because he’s had to have proven himself with the battle of Thanos. He had to have. He may be sixteen but he can fight, and Tony had to have seen - 

“Secure the perimeter. Keep the civilians clear and keep an eye out for escaping Bugs,” Tony orders. 

Captain America nods, seconding the order, and Peter bites back his arguments. He’s an Avenger and one of the least injured from Thanos. Not even the super soldiers had time to heal, and Captain America - Steve! Peter was invited to call him Steve! - was in a generic military uniform for armor because his own had been ripped to shreds. Peter is probably in the best shape of all of them, placed in the back last time too, and now he’s about to be sidelined again? 

Aunt May would yell at him for his eagerness to put himself in harm’s way (again. He’s gotten that lecture so many times now…) but Peter can  _ help _ . 

The Winter Soldier also gets put near the perimeter, but that’s different. He’s a sniper! Peter could do so much better in the thick of it, wrapping up Bugs...

Still, he does as he’s told. It’s part of working with a group, Tony had told him last time. Following orders so that everyone is in position. So Peter secures the perimeter. He keeps civilians away, though after Thanos most are happy to steer clear and not risk their life for photographs. He keeps an eye out for escaping Scavengers - or Bugs, as the rest are starting to call them - and several are getting past the others so it isn’t like Peter is  _ bored _ . Just knowing he’s the last line of resistance before the Bugs reach civilians is stressful enough, he realizes. He can’t fail.

His muscles still ache and throb with his movements. Peter can’t imagine Tony, without any healing factors, back in the thick of battle already. Or Black Widow, or Hawkeye, or Falcon, or - even Captain America was collapsing after the end of Thanos!

Stupid, stupid Scavengers. Peter hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to Ned or MJ or anyone to make sure his school was still standing…

Karen, still Karen even when Tony changes and upgrades and modifies Peter’s suit, alerts him to non-human movement.

“Uh, guys? I think we have a problem,” Peter voices on the comms as he quickly scales a building and peeks over the roof.

“Details, Spider-Man,” comes Tony’s clipped voice. 

“I’m on Seventh and, uh, Forty-Second and there’s a cluster of Bugs here. It looks like they have something, a bomb, maybe? I don’t know. Can’t get a read on it.”

Karen sends him information, but Peter doesn’t think listing the identifiable metals over the comms is going to be helpful. He sends the list to Tony, just in case he’s wrong. He does hope he gets another chance to look at the breakdown of the unidentifiable space metals though. How cool is that?

Peter peers over the rooftop, just above where the Bugs are huddled around the bright blue spike of 18.9% iron, 2.8% manganese, 32.6% nickel with the rest unidentifiable. The Bugs have an unfortunate array of advanced technology that Peter thinks cockroaches shouldn’t be able to carry. 

“Keep your distance. I’ll check it out,” Iron Man replies, voice serious.

Peter fights between relief that someone else is going to get close to a potential bomb - and it’s Tony Stark, of course he knows more about bombs than Peter! - with the frustration at again being side-lined. He’s definitely in better shape than Tony is right now, why can’t Tony just tell Peter what to do?

Suddenly there’s a bright blue glow from the ball, shooting straight up into the air. 

“Too late!” Peter cries out as he ducks, but the glow shoots up higher, past him, and further into the air until it spreads out and explodes like a firework. Blue swatches float back down, and Peter watches as one of them hits the ruins of a tall building. The blue eats the metal, barely pausing, and continues down and down.

“Don’t let any of the blue stuff touch you! It can eat through metal!” Peter calls out in warning to the rest of the Avengers as he uses his webs and swings back for the perimeter. Karen confirms Peter’s calculations of the radius where the blue streaks will fall, and it’s beyond the perimeter that Peter had been watching. He needs to push it back, he needs to warn people…

The Bugs point at him, chittering, but Peter ignores them. His enhanced senses are helpful in avoiding some of the initial blue acidic streaks, but it’s harder to estimate if they’ll hit his webbing and cause him to fall. 

A few close calls later, Peter makes it to the perimeter. He’s thankful for the confidence in his secret identity that lets him order the police officers at the edge to move back, to move people back, to sound the alarm to not touch the blue stuff that floats on the wind. They don’t realize they’re being ordered around by a sixteen year old, and hopefully they never will.

Still, he’s not fast enough. A high rise, already blown out from Thanos’ attack, gets struck and Peter can hear the creaking of the failing supports. There’s too many people - some journalists, some medic support, some firefighters - still on the street.

Peter races for the building, heads inside, and starts webbing exactly where Karen tells him to. He’s better than he was, even sore post-battle; he won’t mess up this time like he did on the ferry. He won’t. He’s got this, he’s got this. 

_ He’s got this. He’s got this _ ! Karen confirms his success in his ear, and Peter relaxes a moment, stretched out, as his webbing holds the building together and he hears calls to evacuate from the outside. More blue floats in, eats away at his webbing, but even where webs fall there’s enough remaining to hold everything together. He’s got this!

“Kid, get out of there!” Iron Man shouts, screams, and Peter opens his mouth to protest because he has this.

Then he sees the Bugs. They’d followed him, and like an idiot he hadn’t webbed them up before he left for the perimeter. He’d allowed Bugs outside the perimeter. He’d failed. 

And he’s stuck in the middle of his web, holding together the building.

One Bug explodes, then the next. 

“What?” Peter asks, turning his head.

The Winter Soldier is there, gun raised. The Soldier steps over and around Peter’s webbing, the debris, everything, as he walks forward, firing as he goes. He doesn’t miss, but the Bugs scatter and soon there’s no more targets to be seen.

“Uh, thanks,” Peter says with a sigh of relief. “Thought it was over for a moment, there.”

Peter’s senses tingle, and he turns to see a smaller but still bright yellow metal ball get tossed at him. Peter yelps and tries to cross his arms in front of him to protect himself, but his hands are still caught up in the webs. 

The Soldier  _ moves _ , faster than a normal human, faster than Peter realized even a super soldier could move. He leaps in front of Peter, catches the ball with a metal fist, and flings it back to the corner it came from. 

Still, even the Soldier’s super speed isn’t quick enough. The ball explodes, yellow shards blowing out in all directions. Peter collapses to the ground as his web is cut, and he curls up into a ball as he senses the shards flying around him. 

The building, with his webbing cut, starts to list to the side. 

“Get out of there!” Tony yells, seconding Karen’s blinking red warnings that he’s about to become a very squashed spider. 

The Soldier remains flat on his back, unmoving. 

“Bucky? Bucky!” and that’s Captain America calling out, voice frantic. 

Oh God, Peter can’t be the person that got Captain America’s best friend killed. Peter crawls to Barnes, and notes with relief that Barnes is, at least, breathing. 

Barnes is also bleeding a lot, even for a super soldier. His eyes are closed, face tight with pain. Some of the pieces of bright yellow shrapnel are still inside him, buried in his chest and stomach and legs. Some pieces, such as in his non-metal arm, went all the way through. 

“Oh no,” Peter breathes. “No, no, no,” he repeats as Karen feeds Peter the information about Barnes’ injuries. Fatal for a non-enhanced human, and life-threatening even for a super soldier. 

“Get out, kid,” Barnes whispers through clenched teeth. 

Peter’s only option is to drag Barnes, as horrible as that’s going to be on his injuries. Getting smashed by a collapsing building would definitely seal Barnes’ fate. 

So Peter drags him, thankful that Barnes doesn’t scream with the added pain. He doesn’t like to think of why that might be true, the horrors that the man has experienced under Hydra. Peter can’t imagine, he can’t - he can’t. But he can drag Barnes, super soldier weight and everything. Not quickly, not painlessly, but there’s hope.

Then the building starts to collapse. Peter is too late, too slow.

Iron Man scoops him up, him and Barnes both, and they fly through the air so quick that Peter loses his breath. They dodge around the falling supports, falling debris, and hit the clear section and then go farther until they’re safe. 

Peter, tossed over Iron Man’s shoulder, gets dropped to the ground. Barnes in a bridal carry is set down much more gently. The gauntlets retract to reveal Tony’s hands, and they dig into the ribs of the suit to pull out packets of something bright green and liquidy.

“Barton, you’re up. Call the shots and keep everyone in position except Rogers. Steve, you better be close enough to clear a path for the medics. Get them here with an ambulance yesterday.” Tony orders as he rips open the packets and smears the gel over the worst of Barnes’ injuries. Whatever it is, it keeps Barnes’ blood and organs inside, and Peter breathes a bit easier as he stares.

“How bad?” comes Rogers’, Captain America’s, voice. “Tony,  _ how bad _ ?”

“Bad enough,” Tony replies, clipped but sure. His hands don’t shake at all as they get coated with gel and blood, Peter realizes. 

Peter’s own hands are trembling and his knees feel weak.

“Took the equivalent of a grenade to the chest, but I’m sure the guy’s had worse, right? So he should be fine,” Tony says, voice light. 

Barnes wheezes out something that might have been a laugh.

“Four minute ETA on the medics,” Rogers says, voice so cold that Peter shivers.

“Kid, keep an eye out for any other roaches,” Tony orders. He continues to smear the gel over Barnes’ injuries, but he’s running out. There aren’t any more gel packets. “I’ve got the suit, but the last thing we need is for you to get hit in the back with another grenade.”

Peter winces, hidden behind the suit.

“He’s a kid. Give him a break,” Barnes groans as he shifts and his entire body tenses in pain. 

“Don’t move,” Tony orders. Even though it’s not directed at Peter, Peter finds himself freezing too.

Barnes laughs, better-formed this time. “Sure, sure. Concrete‘s relaxin’.” 

Peter scans the surrounding area, Karen helping him confirm that there’s no Bugs nearby. His webs are ready, just in case.

“Ohh, what is that?” Barnes asks with a sigh, and Peter gives him a quick glance before he turns back to scanning the perimeter. There’s nothing new that Tony has pulled out that Peter can see.

Peter hears the faceplate retract. “Yeah, you like that?” Tony asks. “Glad to see it works on you. Wasn’t sure the painkillers would be effective, mixed in with the gel, but I tried to pack in enough even for you super soldiers. Mostly it works to keep your insides inside you where they should be... figures you’d be a sacrificial idiot like your spangly friend.”

Barnes coughs, thick and wet. “I owed you one.”

Peter wouldn’t have heard except that he has enhanced senses. He wishes there was some way to simply not hear - Aunt May called it selective hearing, and she says he does it sometimes and why can’t it be  _ now _ ? - but he does.

“You owed me two,” Tony returns. “So you better make it through this, because you still owe me one.”

Peter blinks because do they, are they, does Tony really mean about…? Peter isn’t supposed to know, not really. Everyone kind of danced around it once Thanos came and the Avengers were reformed and everything, but Peter had enough awareness to pick a few things up from what was not being said. Of course, Karen straight up told him what FRIDAY had told her, when Peter had started to speculate about what everyone had meant, and so now Peter knows the full story of Tony’s parents and the Winter Soldier and Hydra and Siberia and… yeah. 

And now because of Peter, Tony is down one favor? Or is that a good thing, because Tony doesn't look angry?

“We all clear, Spider-Kid?” Tony asks. “Captain America is going to be the one to chew you out if he has to battle any Bugs on his way here with the medics.”

“All clear!” Peter says, triple-checking with Karen that it’s true. There are no Bugs. 

“Don’t use me as a punishment, Tony,” Captain America sighs over the comms. “One minute out. How’s Bucky doing?”

“Fine. Stop worrying,” Barnes calls over the comms. 

“Tony?” Rogers asks.

“He’s not going to bleed out at any rate. Thanks to me and my genius invention,” Tony says. 

Less than a minute later, and Captain America runs up the street, pulling debris out of the way of the ambulance following him. Finally the medics are loading Barnes onto the stretcher and, with Captain America’s help, lifting him into the ambulance.

Peter gets to do nothing but watch. 

Tony is busy telling the medics how the gel works, how to remove it and get at the injury beneath to be able to pull out the shrapnel. He routes them to a nearby medical setup that has ex-SHIELD staff, so at least they’d know how to handle Barnes. 

“You should go with him,” Captain America says, laying a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“ _ Me _ ?” Peter questions. His mask is on, fortunately, to hide his face from the personnel or any journalists around. And now Captain America can’t see his gobsmacked expression. “But you!”

“I have to stay here,” Rogers says, and underneath the helmet Peter would say he looks tired, stressed. “But someone needs to watch out. Make sure Bucky… in case he…”

Tony cuts Steve off. “He might wake up and not know where he is. You can restrain him. You  _ will _ if you have to, right?” Peter nods at the order. “But also keep an eye out for anyone on the medical staff who’s a little too interested. Anyone who starts speaking another language, restrain first and ask questions later. Or let us ask the questions.”

Peter tries to think of a polite way to ask, but he’s running out of time. Tony is already waving him to the back doors of the ambulance. “I, uh, thought he wasn’t…?”

“We know that but Hydra doesn’t,” Steve explains. “Now go.”

Peter goes. He’s a bit stunned that they trust him with Barnes - Bucky? Does Peter get to call him Bucky, or should he wait to be invited? Probably wait… - after he’d already gotten Barnes hurt. 

Clearly the Avengers don’t think they need Peter, which stings a bit. Not like they need Captain America, of course, but… but with Barnes down, don’t they need anyone, even him, more than ever?

“Keep us updated,” Tony shouts as Peter climbs into the ambulance. “If Barnes wakes up and is fine, then get your butt back here.”

“Tony,” Steve hisses, but then the doors start to close and Peter sees Tony grab Steve and take to the air, back to the battle. 

“Sit there and stay out of the way,” a medic orders, not unkindly. 

Peter curls into a small ball in the corner, keeping his limbs out of the way, and watches as the medics start prepping Bucky for the clinic.

**Author's Note:**

> I 100% promise that Bucky is going to be okay.


End file.
